The European Commission of Human Rights examines cases to seek a resolution where possible, and otherwise to decide whether the case should be referred to the European Court of Human Rights, making recommendations if it does so.

In this case, heard by the ECtHR in 1998, two trans women claimed that the UK government’s refusal to correct their birth certificates violates the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Kristina Sheffield v. Air Foyle Charter Airlines — full text of the 1998 industrial tribunal ruling in which the applicant was found to have been unlawfully discriminated against because she was trans when her application for employment was rejected.

Goodwin & ’I’

In these landmark cases, the ECtHR finally ruled in favour of the transsexual applicants from the UK, prompting the government to introduce the Gender Recognition Bill to give effect to the ECtHR’s judgment.

Richards v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
On the 27th April 2006, European Court of Justice ruled that a British transsexual woman was discriminated against when she was treated as a man and refused a state pension. The case has important implications for other transsexual women in the UK, who may be able to claim backdating of their pensions.

The female partner of a trans man went to court to try to secure her right to marry him in order that he could inherit her pension if she died. The Court of Appeal referred the case to the European Court of Justice, which ruled in principle in favour of the applicant.